Tank Warframes And Late/end-Game Potential

[Emperion92]

There's currently a lot being said about the Tank Warframes, particularly since Valkyr (though some may not consider her a "tank") received a considerable armor buff, while Frost received a considerable nerf to his snowglobe ability. Tank frames are becoming less viable as the game progresses, and if a trend like that were to continue, it would deeply impact the community, and their enjoyment of the game.

 

The change to Frost's snowglobe has sparked a lot of discussion, but the question is, did it truly need to be nerfed? Well, considering that with enough energy available, one could survive "indefinitely" within a snowglobe, yeah, maybe it did. Most of us can say we preferred a Frost accompanying us on a defense mission. But the reason was that is was the most viable strategy. Particularly in high-level defense, using snowglobes was the easiest, most cost efficient, and typically the safest strategy. Sure, you could always set up a defensive perimeter of teslas with a Vauban, restore the pod's shields with a Mag, blow everyone up with a Nova, and keep everyone in good shape with a Trinity, but once someone went down, it was all over, usually. If one person played a Frost, the rest of the team could play as whomever they chose, and enjoy whatever playstyle they wanted.

 

However, Frost isn't the only Tank frame with efficiency issues. Rhino's tankiness relies on his Iron Skin, of course. But a cap of 1200 is measly. Yes, it can be increased substantially with Focus and Blind Rage, but at great cost, and trying to balance the cost with other mods leads to mediocre efficiency, among other things. I personally have played as a Rhino for some time, and while I still find him to be an excellent tank compared to other frames, he doesn't perform his duties well late-game. Now, it's fair to say that a lot of frames fall off late-game, but if there are two things that should remain reasonably consistent, it's Healers, and Tanks.

 

Trinity is highly valuable late-game, more so than Oberon, as he relies heavily on dealing damage to restore teammates. But Healers need someone to take some of the fire off of them, and with tanks being as feeble as they are, it's a serious problem.

 

Now Valkyr, in brief, has likely the best self-sustain, but to be frank, spamming one's ultimate over and over detracts from the gunplay, use of one's melee weapons, and is considered by many players to be simply boring.

 

Saryn has virtually no self-sustain, and her stats do not keep her alive long enough late-game to be a viable tank, typically speaking.

 

Now, it's unreasonable to ask for frames that can sustain level 100 enemies with ease, to be sure. But these frames need a way to scale better. To be quite frank, a lot of frames do, but I think this is a reasonable start, and I think that not only Tank players, but their teammates, will benefit greatly and have a more enjoyable Warframe experience.

[Serialkillerwhale]

Agreed.

 

The problem here is the massive advantage "Caster" archetype frames have.

 

Suggestions:

Iron Skin: Scale Iron Skin off hp/shields, being 100/150%/200%/250% of the Shield/hp total, this makes Rhino stack hp and shields, which furthers his tanking role.

 

Snowglobe: honestly, just Revert Snow Globe, it's just a S#&$tier blessing in it's old state and only used because it protected the objective as well, which is important in what? 2 gamemodes?

Saryn: Not a tank frame.

[Tulzscha]

Moved to the proper section.